2007 Handbooks

This unit explores some of the central issues in contemporary moral psychology. The first section focuses on freedom of the will, the nature and value of autonomy and debates about whether autonomy is compatible with socialisation. In the second section we discuss a range of issues concerning moral responsibility, including the implications of luck and causal determination for responsibility, whether moral responsibility requires an ability to do otherwise, and the conditions under which persons should be exempted from responsibility for their actions. The third section focuses on classical and contemporary accounts of personal identity, exploring the differences between metaphysical, practical and narrative theories of identity. Philosophers to be discussed in the unit include Harry Frankfurt, Christine Korsgaard, Derek Parfit, Paul Ricoeur, PF Strawson, Gary Watson, Bernard Williams, and Susan Wolf.